Brilliant Branch Railroad Bridge

Brilliant Branch Railroad Bridge
Brilliant Branch Railroad Bridge
	The Brilliant Branch Railroad Bridge, as viewed from the Highland Park Bridge.
Coordinates	40°29′12″N 79°54′19″W / 40.4866°N 79.9053°W
Carries	Brilliant Branch
Crosses	Allegheny River
Locale	Pittsburgh and Aspinwall
Characteristics
Design	Truss bridge
Longest span	396 feet (121 m)
Clearance below	56.5 feet (17.2 m)
History
Opened	1904
Location

The Brilliant Branch Railroad Bridge is a truss bridge that carries Allegheny Valley Railroad's Brilliant Branch across the Allegheny River between the Pittsburgh neighborhood of Highland Park and the borough of Aspinwall, Pennsylvania.

History

The bridge is seen in this photograph from the early 20th century.

The Brilliant Branch, along with the Port Perry Branch along the Monongahela River was built by the Pennsylvania Railroad as part of a bypass of the narrow tracks around Downtown Pittsburgh.^[1] After the collapse of the Penn Central Transportation Company (the PRR's successor company) in 1976, the Brilliant Branch was abandoned. In 1995, they were purchased by the fledgling Allegheny Valley Railroad and in 2003, the Brilliant Branch Bridge was reopened. It generally served one train per day in each direction.